Digital Cameras Guide

Olympus' New Flagship XZ-2

Olympus' New Flagship XZ-2 Comes with Fast Lens & Hybrid Control Ring

The Stylus XZ-2 is Olympus' new flagship digital compact camera, succeeding the nearly two-year old XZ-1. The XZ-2 is noticeably bigger than the XZ-1, but boasts the same bright f/1.8-2.5 lens with 4x optical zoom. It comes with a new 12MP backside-illuminated sensor and what Olympus is calling the world's first hybrid control ring. The XZ-2 has a new touchscreen swivel LCD and a Touch AF Shutter function with which you can touch to focus.

The lens has the same aperture settings and focal length as the XZ-1, with a 28-112mm focal length (in 35mm equivalent) which works out to 4x optical zoom. The XZ-2 comes with 11 Art Filters and five Art Effects, as well as Dual IS (CMOS shift-type image stabilization). Like the Olympus Pen Lite E-PL5, the XZ-2 can use the Toshiba Flash Air SD card to share images wirelessly using the Olympus Image Share app on Android and iOS.

Here's a quick comparison between the XZ-2 and its peers.

Canon S100

Fujifilm X10

Nikon P7700

Olympus XZ-2

Panasonic LX7

Samsung EX2F

Sony RX100

Aperture

f/2(W)-5.9(T)

f/2(W)-2.8(T)

f/2(W)-4(T)

f/1.8(W)-2.5(T)

f/1.4(W)-2.3(T)

f/1.4(W)-2.7(T)

f/1.8(W)-4.9(T)

Focal Length (35mm equiv.)

24-120mm

28-112mm

28-200mm

28-112mm

24-90mm

24-80mm

28-100mm

Optical Zoom

5x

4x

7.1x

4x

3.8x

3.3x

3.6x

Megapixels

12.1MP

12MP

12.2MP

12MP

10.1MP

12.4MP

20.2MP

Sensor Size

1/1.7"

2/3"

1/1.7"

1/1.7"

1/1.7"

1/1.7"

1"

Max. Video Resolution

1080/24fps with stereo

1080/30fps with stereo

1080/30fps with stereo

1080/30fps with stereo

1080/60fps with stereo

1080/30fps with stereo

1080/60fps with stereo

Battery Life (by CIPA)

200 images

270 images

330 images

340 images

330 images

Unlisted

330 images

Dimensions

99 x 60 x 28mm

117 x 70 x 57mm

73 x119 x 50mm

113 x 65 x 48mm

111 x 67 x 47mm

112 x 62 x 29mm

102 x 58 x 36mm

Weight

198g

350g

392g

346g

298g

294g

213g

Release Price

S$699

S$999

TBA

TBA

S$799

S$699

S$999

Hybrid Control Ring

The XZ-2 features a hybrid control ring which allows users to switch the control style and functions, as well as switching between the analogue and digital ring for the dial around the lens. There is a lever next to the lens, push it downwards and the ring around the lens switches to analogue control for focus or zoom - it feels like you're using a focus or zoom ring on a SLR lens.

When the lever is pushed up, the ring around the lens switches to digital control, which lets you change exposure settings like aperture and exposure compensation quickly. What controls are available will depend on what mode the camera is in. It's an interesting feature, akin to taking the control dial and moving it to the lens, and is comparable to similar control ring dials found on the Canon S100 and Sony RX100.

A New Sensor

The XZ-2 comes with a newly developed 1/1.7" back-illuminated CMOS sensor, and the TruePic VI image processing engine found on the OM-D E-M5. 1/1.7" is larger than the sensors of most digital compact cameras, but slightly smaller than the 1/1.63" sensor found in the XZ-1. 1/1.7" is a size shared by its peers like the Canon S100, Panasonic LX7 and Samsung EX2F, only the Fujifilm X10 and Sony RX100 have larger sensors.

Pricing & Availability

The Olympus Stylus XZ-2 will be available from November onwards, with the local retail price to be announced.